Germany Day 4

We had to get up early this morning and drive an hour north to Frankfurt. Since we were riding in a small bus we didn´t drive too fast on the autobahn. The Luticks had some other American visitors, so he took us all into the city. We saw the Frankfurt Opera House...which is a beautiful old building wiht its own plaza just outside the financial district (Frankfurt has like 20 major banks). Then we walked down the pedstrian zone-which is a street lined with shops (and Starbucks) but there are no cars. So we walked for about a mile and a half, then we went into the Old city. i think its called the Romanplatz-because they can trace some of the building back to the times of the Romans. All of the buildings in this area look like the German postcards. There was a vendor selling bratwurst-so of course we had to try some. There were also some actors/mimes in the plaza. One guy was painted all gold, and hte other had make up on that made him look like an old painting and they would stay in poses-so they looked like statues. It was really cool. Then we walked closer to the Main River and saw a Chinese man doing tricks while balancing objects on his head or nose. I bought a couple of souvenirs, but I am still in shock with the prices. Not only do I think theey ae expensive-but if you translate it back to dollars-then its really expensive. For example, I bought a magnet-nothing fancy-and it 3.4 euros or close to $6-for a plain magnet that might have been $2 in the Staes. We saw the river, then went back and ate jager schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet wtih mushroom gravy) and potatoes at an outdoor cafe. It was really nice, but it was a chilly when the sun went behind the clouds. By this time it was late afternoon, and we stil had a long drive ahead of us. Bro. Duke was going to drive us to Wilhelmshaven-which was on the northern coast. So it was back to the autobahn. As soon as we started driving, the girls were all asleep. Since we now in smaller car, Bro. Duke drove like a Geramn. We went over 200km-hour (160 km-hour=100 mph). It was really cool! We talked about lots of things and you could see the change in the country. The mountains were full of trees covered with gold and red leaves, mixed with different kinds of evergreens. We left the mountains and now that land was flat. We did stop at McDonalds for some food...but it was still expensive and not that great., but at least they had water with out gas (the people here drink mineral water-so you have to request plain water). We finally arrived in Wilhelmshaven around 9:30 and met all the kids. It hasd been a long day!